What to Know
- An Italian man escaped from a house on Prince Street in New York City last week, where he said he had been held captive for 17 days and tortured by two business partners; sources described the relationship among the three as complex, with a "Wolf of Wall Street/frat guys gone wild" element to it
- John Woeltz, was arrested in his bathrobe outside the scene; he is expected in court on kidnap and torture charges, among others, on Wednesday. A second suspect, William Duplessie, surrendered in connection with the case a day ago
- Police found the victim covered in cuts and bruises, with ligature marks on his wrists. Video obtained exclusively by NBC New York shows the victim, disheveled and shoeless, running down Spring Street
A 37-year-old crypto investor has been indicted by a grand jury on charges he and a business partner kidnapped and tortured an Italian man, holding him captive inside a posh townhouse in Nolita for weeks in a bid to get the man’s Bitcoin password.
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WATCH HEREJohn Woeltz, 37, has been jailed since his arrest Friday outside the luxury rental. He was taken into custody in his bathrobe. Woeltz was ordered held without bail after his hearing Thursday.
The indictment will remain sealed until his arraignment on the grand jury indictment, which is scheduled for June 11, according to the court. Woeltz didn't appear in person for Thursday's hearing.
His alleged accomplice, William Duplessie, surrendered to police earlier in the week and is awaiting his own indictment.
At the hearing Thursday, an attorney for Woeltz requested his client be released on a $2 million bond, citing his lack of criminal record, philosophy degree and professional accomplishments.
“He’s been very successful in the technology world,” the attorney, Wayne Gosnell, told a Manhattan judge, adding that his client “has every intention to fight this case.”
The judge denied bail for Woeltz, who did not appear in court.
Gosnell also requested that Woeltz not be required to turn over firearms that he legally owns in Kentucky. And he disputed the prosecutor’s earlier claims that his client owned a private jet and helicopter.
“He has no means to flee,” Gosnell said.
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SIGN UP Woeltz has described himself in interviews as a blockchain investor who spent time in Silicon Valley before returning to Kentucky’s burgeoning crypto-mining industry.
Authorities have said Woeltz and Duplessie, another cryptocurrency investor, knew the victim personally.
On May 6, they lured the man — whose name has not been released by officials — to a posh townhouse in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood, one of the city’s most expensive, by threatening to kill his family.
The man said he was then held captive for 17 days, as the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high.
He eventually agreed to hand over his computer password Friday morning, then managed to flee the home as his captors went to retrieve the device. The victim made it onto the street, bloodied and shoeless, according to police.
A search of the townhouse turned up cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor, night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed to his head, according to prosecutors.
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Who is John Woeltz?
Authorities believe Woeltz is a big-name cryptocurrency trader from Kentucky with an estimated worth around $100 million; sources said the victim is worth an estimated $30 million. Woeltz had reportedly been renting out the Nolita residence at a monthly rate of at least $30,000.
The luxury six-story pad has an elevator and was described by sources as a "high-end frat house" with bottles of liquor strewn about and stripper poles in the basement. Neighbors said they could hear loud partying at all hours of the night, but they had no idea of the alleged torture going on within its walls.
Sources told News 4 that Woeltz and Duplessie roughed up the victim in the past, but not to the same extent. He would get picked on by the other two, but their treatment of him was not as violent. Sources described the relationship among the three as complex, with a "Wolf of Wall Street/frat guys gone wild" element to it.
